Cisco Inc.

Cisco Systems, Inc. is a computer technology corporation production networking and communication devices and services worldwide.

A September 2008 Washington Post op/ed titled "Afghanistan's Communication Revolution" pointed to the "establishment of educational facilities such as the many Cisco academies located across Afghanistan -- some of which are designed specifically to train female engineers."

Company history
Cisco was founded in 1984 by a couple, Leonard Bosack and Sandy K. Lerner, in Silicon Valley, California. The two Stanford University employees used their own credit cards for funding as they produced multiprotocol routers in their living room. The multiprotocol router was important because it "enabled computers of varied make, with different protocols, to communicate and to access the early Internet." The first router was designed by Andy Bechtolsheim (who later founded Sun Microsystems and much of its programming was written by William Yeager, a research engineer at Stanford. Bosack and Lerner developed a router that closely resembled the one with Yeager's software, for which they had had access to in its early stages of planning.  By 1986 Stanford and Cisco were fighting over rights to the router's software as well as the use of Stanford resources for Cisco's projects by Bosack. An informal settlement was reached between the two organizations in 1987 when Stanford licensed the router software and two computer boards to Cisco, in exchange for the right to use some of the software which included significant improvements made by Cisco after its break from the Stanford research team.

Historical financial information
"Historical Prices"

Political contributions
In the 2008 election cycle, as of July 2008, the Cisco Systems Political Action Committee spent $452,096. 58% of contributions went to Democrats, 42% to Republicans. A detailed list of Cisco's PAC contribution recipients can be found at Opensecrets.org

Lobbying
As of July 2008, Cisco Systems spent $310,000 on lobbying expenditures. It spent a total of $1,140, in 2007, and $1,220,000 in 2006.

Labor
Cisco is a major purchaser of products manufactured at the Tyco Electronics (http://www.tycoelectronics.com) plant in Dongguan Province, China. Tyco Electronic's Dongguan factory produces wire and cable, data connectors, printed circuit boards, magnetics, resistors, and circuit protection devices. The plant employed about 6,000 workers in spring of 2008, who are recruited through signs on the factory gates, vocational schools, and job agencies, and who are all entitled to written labor contracts. The "normal" 8-hour workday is broken by two one hour meal breaks, and is typically extended by 2-4 hours daily, and during times of high production, overtime reaches up to 150 hours/month, in serious violation of Chinese Labor Law, which allows a maximum of 36 overtime hours per month. Both regular and overtime wages were found by a report conducted by SACOM and Bread for All to be at or above the rate required by Chinese Labor Law. In attempting to reach production targets, workers' health and safety becomes endangered due to demanding, repetitive work with hazardous chemicals. Deteriorating eyesight, even amongst young workers (who comprise the majority of interviewees quoted in the SACOM report), is a very common complaint due to long-term use of microscopes and other small-scale production processes. According to the report, "Overall, the provision of personal protective equipment and safety training is seriously inadequate. Some production workers are even exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in their work area without wearing masks to protect themselves.  In the long term, Tyco Electronics workers will likely develop occupational diseases that could have been prevented in the first place." Living facilities at the factory were found to be generally "acceptable" by workers, though overcrowding and noise were expressed as concerns. Food quality was a complaint, being both expensive and of poor quality. SACOM and Bread for All researchers' primary concerns after their investigation into the Tyco facility were the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), hazardous chemical training, and the availability of medical check-ups.

Human rights
Cisco is one of several technology companies complicit in the Chinese government's censorship of the internet, having produced a "firewall box" allowing the government to block certain websites in the late 1990s.

Social responsibility initiatives
Cisco's social responsibility policies include not only environmental, but also labor and global supply chain issues. The company's statements on these issues can be found at: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/index.html

Business scope
Cisco manufactures computer hardware, computer software, and telemcommunications equipment, including networking hardequipment, network, connectivity, and security software, satellite and broadcast network equipment, and wireless telecommunications equipment.

Selected Subsidiaries 
 * Cisco-Linksys LLC
 * Cisco Systems Canada Co.
 * Cisco Systems GmbH
 * Cisco Systems Hong Kong Ltd.
 * Cisco Systems (India) Private Limited
 * Cisco Systems Limited
 * IronPort Systems, Inc.
 * WebEx Communications, Inc.

Financial information (2008)
Ticker Symbol:CSCO Main Exchanges:NASDAQ Investor Website:http://investor.cisco.com/

Largest Shareholders 

Geographic scope paragraph

Governance
Executives 
 * Mr. John T. Chambers, 59 (Exec. Chairman, Chief Exec. Officer, Pres and Member of Acquisition Committee)
 * Mr. Richard J. Justice, 58 (Exec. VP of Worldwide Operations & Bus. Development)
 * Mr. Randy Pond, 54 (Exec. VP of Operations Processes and Systems)
 * Mr. Dennis D. Powell, 60 (Exec. Advisor)
 * Mr. Frank Calderoni, 50 (Chief Financial Officer and Exec. VP)

Board members/affiliations Executive director/compensation Date and venue of next AGM

Directors
Accessed December 2008:


 * Carol Bartz - Executive Chairman, Autodesk, Inc.
 * M. Michele Burns - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mercer LLC
 * Michael D. Capellas - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, First Data Corporation
 * Larry Carter - Former Senior Vice President, Office of the Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems, Inc.
 * John T. Chambers - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco Systems, Inc.
 * Brian L. Halla - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, National Semiconductor Corporation
 * John L. Hennessy - President, Stanford University
 * Richard Kovacevich - Chairman, Wells Fargo & Company
 * Roderick C. McGeary - Chairman of the Board, BearingPoint, Inc
 * Michael K. Powell - Senior Advisor of Providence Equity Partners and Chairman of the MK Powell Group
 * Steven M. West - Founder and Partner, Emerging Company Partners
 * Jerry Yang - Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Yahoo! Inc.

Contact information
Cisco Systems, Inc. 170 West Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134 United States Phone: 408-526-4000 Fax: 408-526-4100

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Cisco Foundation

External articles

 * Richard Cohen "CHINA: Business and Repression as Usual" The New York Times January 19, 2006. Accessed on corpwatch.org July 2008.
 * Chang Chin-hsi, The Taipei Times "China: Businesses Help China's government abuse rights" February 9, 2007. Accessed on CorpWatch.org July 2008.